Sure. What you focus on will consume your mind and grow within it. The bad variety is often called dwelling or rumination.

Some will find the desert father John Cassian[0] interesting in this regard. He uses the analogy of a water mill for the mind. You cannot stop a water mill from turning - the water keeps flowing and keeps turning the grindstone - so all you can do is choose what is poured into the grindstone. If you fill it with high quality wheat, you will have high quality flour. If you fill it with or add to it darnel, you will produce something toxic.

You reap what you sow, and if you sow your mind and your attention with filth, filth will sprout and spread and metastasize. Cultivate the garden of your mind wisely. If the mind drifts, pull it back. Let the good crop choke out any weeds in your mind.

This is why there is an ethics of thought and imagination. It is wrong to intentionally think certain things. Stupid or ugly thoughts might enter our minds unintentionally, but we can pull our minds back to good thoughts. Indulging or pursuing bad thoughts corrupts you from the inside, and they prepare the ground for bad actions down the line.

(N.b., there was a link trending on HN a few years ago about a book of selections from Cassian's "Conferences" [1]. I can't find it at the moment, unfortunately.)

[0] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3508.htm

[1] https://a.co/d/cbxYLo7

Reminds me of the first pair of verses of the Dhammapada (words of the Buddha from ~2500 years ago. … allegedly):

Mind precedes all mental states.

Mind is their chief; they are mind-made.

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

.

Mind precedes all mental states.

Mind is their chief; they are mind-made.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

Source: https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/dp01/

> Stupid or ugly thoughts might enter our minds unintentionally, but we can pull our minds back to good thoughts.

In my experience, the best approach is to maintain a neutral aspect and just let those negative or unhelpful thoughts go. Wave goodbye and allow your mind to naturally drift to something else.